


But There's Wolves

by plantain



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Female Character, Canon-Typical Violence, Family, Gen, Original Character-centric, Personal Growth, Slow Burn, Strong Female Characters, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-11
Updated: 2017-01-11
Packaged: 2018-09-16 18:38:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9284948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/plantain/pseuds/plantain
Summary: It felt like falling asleep quickly. There was no darkness, just an exhale and a blink between one stretch of time and the next. [Hiyoko is born during the Second Shinobi War, to a clan fated to be culled by Itachi's hand. OC-Insert]





	

**Author's Note:**

> I made a timeline for this in my sketchbook and everything. Naruto's timeline has borked consistency, but if I get anything extremely wrong, let me know. This also isn't beta'd, so please let me know if you see ways for me to improve.
> 
> A lot of my tags are for future stuff (sorry). Once Hiyoko is capable of interacting with more people and of joining the Academy, it'll get more interesting. For timeline reference, her agemates are: Kakashi, Obito, Rin, Gai, Kurenai, Asuma, and Ibiki. They should be featuring soon, starting in the next few chapters.
> 
> This started as an idle imagining, mostly because not a lot of female characters in Naruto get their fair shake, and I wanted to consider a 'self-insert' OC that struggles to survive in the short-term, but also has to consider the long-term re: the Uchiha Massacre and that she will die in it (along with everyone else) if it's not changed.
> 
> TW: Possible emetophobia, implied ideation

I would be lying if I said it was unexpected. Even before it happened, I thought about all the steps of the equation. _Car, ice, tree._

It was the middle of the day and my car hit a patch of ice in the middle of the back road I was taking to college.

My brake gave easily when I pressed it, but my car started to go diagonal - only one of my front tires had traction, I knew. I tried to compensate but only made it fishtail even more violently, sending it into a final full spiral off the road. It was a mistake anyone could make in a panic. I was just a twenty-something woman on her way to school.

I held my breath and tasted blood on my tongue. The tree hit my door first. I'm glad I don't remember what happened next. It felt like falling asleep quickly. There was no darkness, just an exhale and a blink between one stretch of time and the next.

Waking was strange. My eyes were gummy, and my limbs were too weak to move fully. There was something wrapped around my throat, and I coughed until someone tore it off of me. Everything felt too tender. People were talking around me and I couldn't understand them. I was being held, rearranged somehow, and only my blurriest thoughts could surface above all the sensory noise.

I did the only thing I could do - scream. I was in pain and I wanted it to stop. It didn't.

Eventually I fell asleep.

It took me a day or two, embarrassingly, before I grasped that I was a baby called Hiyoko. A week of sleepy cuddles, diaper changing, nursing, and what I now knew to be Japanese casually being spoken around me and to me before I could really do anything. My mother's face appeared before me often and I made a game of reaching for her jet-black wild curls. I took particular joy in grabbing them and twining them around my tiny fist.

I learned that my new mother's name was Masami. Inwardly, I began calling her that. It felt a little cruel, to open a gap between us even mentally. She'd prepared over 9 months to have a baby girl to raise and love, and got me instead. I tried not to let it get to me.

Only when I was in the grasp of absolute comfort did I let my mind wander to the car, the tree, the ice. The weightless skid of my car before the darkness. When I realized that I'd probably died, I threw up on Masami's shoulder out of stress. There was a sense of impermanence to everything shitty I did - my scars always healed, my girlfriend always forgave me, my friends always took care of me, my luck always held out.

The worst thing that'd happened in my life was getting kicked out of my house by my parents. But I'd survived, still went to college. My luck still got me by.

Except... this time. When I'd died, there had been nothing. I had not existed until I was reborn. There hadn't even been a pause.

I didn't want to ever think about that again. If I died again, that could mean no more Hiyoko, and definitely no more Hanna Leibowitz.

All in all, I think that motivated me to learn everything as quickly as I could. Telling time was difficult when I slept for such long stretches at a time but the proud gaze of Masami and how she murmured to other women told me enough about how I was advancing quickly. I graduated from lying on my back to rolling around, then to crawling. Babbling became a way to experiment with forming words. I could say 'kaa-chan' and name some food items. I clung to Masami like a leech.

In my past life, I'd been pretty good at knowing intuitively who was near me and what they were feeling. It seemed like it carried over to this one. This was a small comfort to me. Helplessness sucked, even if I was getting strong enough that Masami braided her hair to keep it away from my grabbing hands. It was little stuff: I always knew when Masami entered the room. I predicted without fail when there were other visitors at the house - usually playmates my age.

I had a few playmates - most of them black-haired and dark-eyed like me. I lived in what looked like a gated community, and I assumed that most people within it were related to me in some way. It was the family resemblance that ran like a thread through all of us.

For the most part I tolerated their presence. At this age, they weren't very good company. Some of them tried pulling on my hair (thick black curls that were still pressed close to my skull) and were violently rebuffed. Usually I set up in a corner away from them and let that convey the message. Masami didn't seem to mind, but her eyes were attentive.

One day she took me outside the compound. Masami liked to carry me in her arms - she was very strong, so I didn't fear her dropping me. I nestled my face in the crook of her neck and felt her pulse underneath my cheek. She smelled like home.

Masami was always hypervigilant when outside of the compound, her face impassive and her chin held level. It was frightening to see someone so loving just... be able to _hide_ that away, as if the kindness was the lie and not the air of stony pride she drew over herself.

Usually our outings were brisk. It was different this time. She walked for what felt longer than usual, then stopped. Masami rearranged me so I was facing outward instead of curled into her shoulder, and pointed at a cliff face. For a disorienting moment I thought it was Mount Rushmore - the geography didn't fit at all, but there were faces carved into the mountain. 

Masami spoke some words softly into my ear. I couldn't understand all of what she said, but I did catch, "...proud...our home...Hiyoko...protect...together...Uchiha clan..."

And then the cincher. One word that I didn't know the English for, but had heard before. "Hokage."

I'm part of the Uchiha clan. Hokage. I remembered this from - Naruto.

There were three faces on the mountain. I knew who they were. _Senju Hashirama, Senju Tobirama, and Sarutobi Hiruzen._


End file.
